World Music

Center

Specialized Collections

In 2015, the World Music Center at UCLA was founded to harness the remarkable assets of three entities established in the 1950s-60s. The World Musical Instrument Collection, with more than 800 instruments, is one of the largest such university-based collections anywhere in the world. The Ethnomusicology Archive, founded by renowned ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood, was one of the first of its kind, and today is the joint second-largest in the United States, behind only the Library of Congress. And Ethnomusicology Publications distributes and publishes reports, CDs, songbooks, DVDs and monograph series on a range of specialized topics – from Ghost Dance songs to jazz to traditional music of Thailand.

Related News

The Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music presents more than a dozen performances this academic year. Featuring special guest artists, world-class student performers and leading scholars in the field,…

A new documentary features Ethnomusicology Professor I Nyoman Wenten and the music of Balinese Gamelan. After 40 years of teaching and performing Gamelan music, Wenten travels to Bali to pay homage to the tradition, and when he returns, he teams up with GRAMMY-award winning vocalist Judith Hill to reintroduce Gamelan to pop music audiences.

About the World Music Center at UCLA

For More Information:

On Wednesday 7 October 2015, the Cabinet of the Herb Alpert School of Music approved the establishment of the World Music Center at UCLA, which will operate under the aegis of the Department of Ethnomusicology. The Center, first proposed by then-chair Helen Rees in 2011, brings together three outstanding assets belonging to the Department: the World Musical Instrument Collection, founded in the late 1950s; the Ethnomusicology Archive, founded in 1960; and Ethnomusicology Publications, which began operations in the 1960s. Bringing these three units together under one administrative and conceptual umbrella offers two major advantages: first, improved functionality and coordination, since all three are frequently involved in different aspects of the same events; and, second, improved visibility and development opportunities.